refusetoconsent
25-09-2009, 08:58 PM
++ NO2ID Supporters' Newsletter No. 132 - 24th September 2009 ++
The UK Identity and Passport Service (UK-IPS) will unveil a marketing
campaign for its ID scheme tomorrow (Friday 25th September) based on
animated fingerprint characters. The Home Office is propagandising
*businesses* rather than the general public in an attempt to give the
impression that the ID scheme is moving forwards whilst in reality
nothing much is actually happening.
You may not see the advertising as it targeted at traders, but it is
your money paying for it. The insulting animated fingerprints campaign
is aimed at persuading retailers who have to comply with age
restrictions that ID cards are a fait accompli and that there is public
demand. The opposite is the case. ID cards are going to be vanishingly
rare for a long time to come, and it would be a foolish businessman who
changed anything he did because of them - particularly since it is
*unlawful* to demand to be shown someone's ID card without giving them a
reasonable alternative - and most people who might be affected already
have plenty of alternatives in the form of PASS cards as well as driving
licenses, etc.
UK-IPS chief James Hall has already begun a 'charm offensive' in the
licensed trade press, attempting to undermine existing well established
proof of age schemes and talk up the inclusion of biometrics - despite
the fact that shops and pubs will not have machines to read
fingerprints, and that UK-IPS' own guidance predicts problems with
visual checks in pubs and clubs. They have also recently been polling
businesses to try and discover what would be most likely to make them
start using the scheme with their employees, so we can expect another
campaign based round that theme to appear at some stage.
This latest, desperate attempt to market the ID scheme is patronising
hype. Having failed to come up with any convincing benefits, officials
are set to waste millions shoving ID cards down the throats of shops, of
licensees, and of young people who already have alternatives. The UK-IPS
is treating the public and businesses like children if it thinks giving
fingerprints smiles will make us all happy to be fingerprinted.
Anyone signing up for a Home Office "identity card" has agreed to report
to an official database for life, and lost control of their own identity
information for ever. It is nothing to smile about.
*+ Reminder: Launch of our counter campaign +
*NO2ID will launch a counter campaign in Greater Manchester on the 10th
October and Central Manchester on the 17th October. On Saturday 10th
October there will be a day of action with NO2ID groups and supporters
from around the UK heading to selected locations in Greater Manchester
to hold street stalls, leaflet and spread the word. The following
Saturday, 17th October, we shall be running more street stalls in
central Manchester and holding a public meeting at the Friends Meeting
House in Mount Street. For more details see Manchester and your local
group in the local groups section below
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"ID" in the news
*+ Euro project to arrest us for what they think we will do - The
Regsiter 23/9/09 +*
Radical Think Tank Open Europe has this week exposed a study by the EU
that could lead to the creation of a massive cross-Europe database,
amassing vast amounts of personal data on every single citizen in the
EU. The scope of this project also reveals a growing governmental
preference for systems capable of locking people up not for what they
have done, but for what they might do.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/23/eu_crime_prediction_project/
What just happened?
*+ Pointless ID Scheme Commissioner appointed +*
The government has appointed Sir Joseph Pilling as the first 'Identity
Commissioner' for the ID cards scheme - a role that is toothless and
irrelevant. The new Commissioner cannot investigate criminality, issue
any sanction for breach or misuse or even demand compliance with the Act
which he is supposed to oversee. The UK Identity and Passport Service
(UK-IPS) press release states: "The new Identity Commissioner will act
independently and on behalf of the public to ensure that information
held on the National Identity Register is accurate and secure as well as
monitoring the use identity cards are put to by both public and private
sectors". It is hard to see how Pilling, who began his career with the
Home Office in 1966 and has spent his entire career being the soul of
discretion in various Departments of State, could be described as
"independent" or be expected to act as a whistleblower.
*+ NO2ID Database Man advert is "decent and true" +
*The Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that NO2ID's advert
'Database Man' is decent, true and substantiated following a single
complaint from a reader of the New Statesman in July, The advert,
designed to highlight the threat to privacy posed by the proposed
existence of a National Identity Register, specifically insider abuse,
and indirectly to highlight the data sharing, collating and
cross-referencing functions of the Register, has been run in various
publications since 2005.
The advert can be downloaded at
http://www.no2id.net/downloads/DatabaseMan.pdf
The full adjudication is at
http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/Public/TF_ADJ_46940.htm
*+ National DNA Database Ethics Group Annual Report released +
*The 2nd Annual Report of the National DNA Database Ethics Group has
been released. The report criticises the government's response to the
European Court of Human Rights ruling that keeping the DNA of people
arrested but not charged was unlawful.
The report can be downloaded at
http://police.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/forensic-science-regulator/NDNAD_Ethics_Group_2nd_Annu1.pdf?view=Binary
The UK Identity and Passport Service (UK-IPS) will unveil a marketing
campaign for its ID scheme tomorrow (Friday 25th September) based on
animated fingerprint characters. The Home Office is propagandising
*businesses* rather than the general public in an attempt to give the
impression that the ID scheme is moving forwards whilst in reality
nothing much is actually happening.
You may not see the advertising as it targeted at traders, but it is
your money paying for it. The insulting animated fingerprints campaign
is aimed at persuading retailers who have to comply with age
restrictions that ID cards are a fait accompli and that there is public
demand. The opposite is the case. ID cards are going to be vanishingly
rare for a long time to come, and it would be a foolish businessman who
changed anything he did because of them - particularly since it is
*unlawful* to demand to be shown someone's ID card without giving them a
reasonable alternative - and most people who might be affected already
have plenty of alternatives in the form of PASS cards as well as driving
licenses, etc.
UK-IPS chief James Hall has already begun a 'charm offensive' in the
licensed trade press, attempting to undermine existing well established
proof of age schemes and talk up the inclusion of biometrics - despite
the fact that shops and pubs will not have machines to read
fingerprints, and that UK-IPS' own guidance predicts problems with
visual checks in pubs and clubs. They have also recently been polling
businesses to try and discover what would be most likely to make them
start using the scheme with their employees, so we can expect another
campaign based round that theme to appear at some stage.
This latest, desperate attempt to market the ID scheme is patronising
hype. Having failed to come up with any convincing benefits, officials
are set to waste millions shoving ID cards down the throats of shops, of
licensees, and of young people who already have alternatives. The UK-IPS
is treating the public and businesses like children if it thinks giving
fingerprints smiles will make us all happy to be fingerprinted.
Anyone signing up for a Home Office "identity card" has agreed to report
to an official database for life, and lost control of their own identity
information for ever. It is nothing to smile about.
*+ Reminder: Launch of our counter campaign +
*NO2ID will launch a counter campaign in Greater Manchester on the 10th
October and Central Manchester on the 17th October. On Saturday 10th
October there will be a day of action with NO2ID groups and supporters
from around the UK heading to selected locations in Greater Manchester
to hold street stalls, leaflet and spread the word. The following
Saturday, 17th October, we shall be running more street stalls in
central Manchester and holding a public meeting at the Friends Meeting
House in Mount Street. For more details see Manchester and your local
group in the local groups section below
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"ID" in the news
*+ Euro project to arrest us for what they think we will do - The
Regsiter 23/9/09 +*
Radical Think Tank Open Europe has this week exposed a study by the EU
that could lead to the creation of a massive cross-Europe database,
amassing vast amounts of personal data on every single citizen in the
EU. The scope of this project also reveals a growing governmental
preference for systems capable of locking people up not for what they
have done, but for what they might do.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/23/eu_crime_prediction_project/
What just happened?
*+ Pointless ID Scheme Commissioner appointed +*
The government has appointed Sir Joseph Pilling as the first 'Identity
Commissioner' for the ID cards scheme - a role that is toothless and
irrelevant. The new Commissioner cannot investigate criminality, issue
any sanction for breach or misuse or even demand compliance with the Act
which he is supposed to oversee. The UK Identity and Passport Service
(UK-IPS) press release states: "The new Identity Commissioner will act
independently and on behalf of the public to ensure that information
held on the National Identity Register is accurate and secure as well as
monitoring the use identity cards are put to by both public and private
sectors". It is hard to see how Pilling, who began his career with the
Home Office in 1966 and has spent his entire career being the soul of
discretion in various Departments of State, could be described as
"independent" or be expected to act as a whistleblower.
*+ NO2ID Database Man advert is "decent and true" +
*The Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that NO2ID's advert
'Database Man' is decent, true and substantiated following a single
complaint from a reader of the New Statesman in July, The advert,
designed to highlight the threat to privacy posed by the proposed
existence of a National Identity Register, specifically insider abuse,
and indirectly to highlight the data sharing, collating and
cross-referencing functions of the Register, has been run in various
publications since 2005.
The advert can be downloaded at
http://www.no2id.net/downloads/DatabaseMan.pdf
The full adjudication is at
http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/Public/TF_ADJ_46940.htm
*+ National DNA Database Ethics Group Annual Report released +
*The 2nd Annual Report of the National DNA Database Ethics Group has
been released. The report criticises the government's response to the
European Court of Human Rights ruling that keeping the DNA of people
arrested but not charged was unlawful.
The report can be downloaded at
http://police.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/forensic-science-regulator/NDNAD_Ethics_Group_2nd_Annu1.pdf?view=Binary